Curtain Call (1940)
Directed by Frank Woodruff

Film Review

The implausibly successful double act formed by character actors Alan Mowbray and Donald MacBride is the main thing going for this routine comedy which struggles to find new mileage in a well-worn plot.  Mowbray and MacBride spark off each other superbly as a pair of likeable grouches and it is not hard to see why the film's producers brought them back for a rematch, in the much more enjoyable Footlight Fever (1941).  Helen Vinson provides further entertainment value as the diva from Hell, outshining Barbara Read in the thankless role of a writer who has too much faith in her abilities.  The satire may be crude but it contains more than a grain of truth (is it a surprise to discover that most directors hate writers and that most writers totally distrust directors and producers?).  Curtain Call is neither particularly original nor is it laugh-out-loud funny, but it passes muster as entertainment, enjoyable mainly for Mowbray's surprisingly amusing portrayal of a man driven to distraction by events beyond his control.

Film Synopsis

Helen Middleton is an aspiring young writer who has just written a play, 'The End of Everything' which she believes will bring her fame and fortune.  When the celebrated director Donald Avery visits her hometown for a short vacation she wastes no time trying to sell her play to him, but when he gets back to his office Avery realises that the play is the worst he has ever seen.  His producer, Jeff Crandall has more serious matters to contend with.  His star performer, Charlotte Morley, has made up her mind to defect to another producer, a move that could ruin Crandall.  In a desperate bid to force Morley to stay with him, Crandall insists that the actress must appear in one last play under the terms of her contract.  The play he chooses is of course Helen Middleton's melodramatic abomination, a play so bad that it will surely ruin Morley's reputation if she ever performs it in public.  The scheme backfires when Morley falls in love with the play and resists all attempts by Avery to rewrite it...